An in-app ad for the mobile app game Gold and Goblins, seen in the Hooked Inc: Fishing Games and Quizzland apps on 17 September 2021, included a video of a woman playing a game on her mobile phone, while behind her a man picked up a chair and drew it
back over his head as if to strike the woman with it. The ad then showed the man looking at the phone over the woman's shoulder as she continued to play. Two complainants, who considered the ad encouraged domestic violence,
challenged whether it was offensive and socially irresponsible. Response AppQuantum Publishing Ltd said they would immediately stop running the ad across all their platforms. They said they had intended the ad to be humorous in
nature, and apologised for any offence it might have caused. ASA Assessment: Complaints upheld The ASA acknowledged AppQuantum's willingness to remove the ad. The ad depicted
a man about to assault a woman, and we considered that consumers would understand from the context of the setting that it was because her attention was focused on the game she was playing, rather than on the man. We considered
that such a reference used in an ad for a mobile app game trivialised and condoned the serious and sensitive subject of domestic violence. This was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, and we considered the ad had not been prepared in a
socially responsible manner. The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told AppQuantum Publishing Ltd not to trivialise or condone domestic violence in its advertising.
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